Difference between revisions of "Bad Witch"

Latest revision as of 05:41, 23 September 2025

Halo 32: Bad Witch

Alternate Cover

Bad Witch (also known as Halo 32) was released on June 22, 2018 on Capitol Records. This album acts as the third installment of a trilogy by Nine Inch Nails, following the 2016 release of Not The Actual Events and the 2017 release of Add Violence. The album leaked on June 18, 2018.

Track List

CD/Digital

"Shit Mirror" – 3:06
"Ahead Of Ourselves" – 3:30
"Play The Goddamned Part" – 4:51
"God Break Down The Door" – 4:14
"I'm Not From This World" – 6:41
"Over And Out" – 7:49

Vinyl

     A1 "Shit Mirror" – 3:06
     A2 "Ahead Of Ourselves" – 3:30
     A3 "Play The Goddamned Part" – 4:51

     B1 "God Break Down The Door" – 4:14
     B2 "I'm Not From This World" – 6:41
     B3 "Over And Out" – 7:49

Formats

Like the two previous releases, Bad Witch is available as a 12" vinyl, a digital download and as a CD. Despite the fact that Not The Actual Events and Add Violence were marketed as EPs, Bad Witch is marketed as an album. In a post on ETS, Trent Reznor explained the decision behind the format change by stating that "EPs show up with singles in Spotify and other streaming services = they get lost easier. EPs feel less important in today’s music-isn’t-as-important-as-it-once-was world. Why make it easier to ignore?"

An exclusive run (limited to 2400), off-white vinyl pressing was also offered through Merchbar as part of the #SpotifyFansFirst campaign.

A limited number of CD and vinyl copies pre-ordered through Australian retailer JB Hi-Fi came with a card autographed by Reznor and Atticus Ross.

About

Bad Witch was officially announced on May 10, 2018. The official nin.com website description states: "CONCLUSION. SHADOWS ON THE CAVE WALL." This is likely a reference to Plato's allegory of the cave.

On May 19, 2018, at "The Physical World" ticket presale, an exclusive listening station was made available for those in attendance. It gave fans the opportunity to hear the songs "Ahead Of Ourselves" and "Play The Goddamned Part" before the album's release.

The album makes use of saxophone on several tracks, more than any previous NIN recording. This is explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly[1], where the interviewer compares the use of sax to that on David Bowie's Blackstar:

Clearly, Bowie is front of mind, and that was certainly an influence. In terms of the precision of arrangement, I think back to [being] younger, reading about Psychedelic Furs as a bunch of students that all picked instruments and learned enough to make a record. As someone that had studied his ass off how to play an instrument, I thought, "You can do that?" Some people worried about technique or if it’s in tune, or if it’s played well. [For Bad Witch, I thought] let’s just use it and add to the mayhem and message we are trying to convey. All this time [the sax] had been just sitting in my studio staring at me. Taunting me.

Unlike the two preceding EPs, the title of Bad Witch is not derived from a lyric sung or printed in the album’s digital or liner notes. A definitive explanation of the title is yet to be revealed.

Live Representation

All songs from Bad Witch have been played live except "Play The Goddamned Part" and "I'm Not From This World".

Artwork

Bad Witch back cover

Despair by Perham Nahl

The "scratch marks" seen in the Not The Actual Events and Add Violence cover artworks appear in a different form on the right border of the back cover of this album.

An alternate front cover was found, depicting different hues and contrasts on all five boxes, as well as a different hand and a different computer chip. The alternate cover appeared on a promo CD from Caroline Records, which was the international distributor for the album.

The middle bottom row image is adapted from a painting entitled Despair by Perham Nahl.[2] The computer chip, within the fifth box, appears to be an image of the Intel 4004 CPU.

In an interview with Rolling Stone[3], Atticus Ross commented: "There's a primitive aspect or reflection of who we are in these times on there. It seems like we've been led. And I think we implied that in the cover, staring at shadows on the wall."

In an interview with Covet The Cover on Instagram[4], designer Hassan Rahim elaborated more on the design process:

"Trent provided two key words: primitive spirituality," says Rahim. The NIN frontman Reznor went on to say that Bad Witch represented "not literally witchcraft but the unexplainable, magic, nature, belief… not in the scientific kind of way but the unknowable, what’s beyond the threshold of death."
After researching hundreds of public domain photos around the themes, the final creative solution was to make the cover "a sequential puzzle of images. More cryptic than explanatory. Alluding to unidentified aerial phenomena, fear, superstition, collapse of civilisation, and ultimately rebirth."
This imagery was put through a repetitive degenerative "feedback loop" of photographing, copying and scanning, to achieve its distinctive aesthetic.

Credits

Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Written, arranged, produced, programmed and performed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Additional vocals "Shit Mirror": Mariqueen Maandig Reznor and Ian Astbury

Mix: Alan Moulder
Engineering: Chris Richardson and Justin McGrath
Mastering: Tom Baker at Baker Mastering

Art Direction: 12:01- Office of Hassan Rahim
Legal: Zia Modabber for Katten Munchin Rosenman LLP, Ross Rosen for Ross B. Rosen & Associates, LLC
Management: Silva Artist Management
Booking: Marc Geiger for WME
Business Management: William Harper and Michael Walsh for Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman

Thank you: Mariqueen Maandig Reznor, Claudia Sarne, Steve Barnett, Michelle Jubelirer, Ashley Newton, Ambrosia Healy, Arjun Pulijal, Erin Cooney, Ed Scott, Jim Chancellor, Andrew Lazonby, Cesar Rosas

External Links

Discography

Previous release - "Add Violence"

Halo number: 32

Next release - "Ghosts V: Together"

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Image:Bad_Witch_Cover.jpg|thumb|200px|Halo 32: ''Bad Witch''<br />[https://amzn.to/2rzrvFn Find on Amazon] - [http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=9&pub=5574848848&toolid=10001&campid=5336384580&customid=&icep_uq=nine+inch+nails+bad+witch&icep_sellerId=&icep_ex_kw=&icep_sortBy=12&icep_catId=&icep_minPrice=&icep_maxPrice=&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg Find on eBay]]]
+[[Image:Bad_Witch_Cover.jpg|thumb|Halo 32: ''Bad Witch'']]
-[[Image:Bad_witch_cover_alternate.jpeg|thumb|200px|Alternate Cover]]
+[[Image:Bad_witch_cover_alternate.jpeg|thumb|Alternate Cover]]
-'''''Bad Witch''''' (also known as '''''[[Halo numbers|Halo 32]]''''') will be released on June 22, 2018 on Capitol Records. This album acts as the third installment of a trilogy, following the 2016 release of ''[[Not The Actual Events]]'' and the 2017 release of ''[[Add Violence]]''. The album leaked on June 18, 2018.
+'''''Bad Witch''''' (also known as '''''[[Halo numbers|Halo 32]]''''') was released on June 22, 2018 on Capitol Records. This album acts as the third installment of a '''[[The Trilogy|trilogy]]''' by [[Nine Inch Nails]], following the 2016 release of ''[[Not The Actual Events]]'' and the 2017 release of ''[[Add Violence]]''. The album leaked on June 18, 2018.
 ==Track List==
+===CD/Digital===
 #"[[Shit Mirror]]" – 3:06
 #"[[Ahead Of Ourselves]]" – 3:30
@@ Line 11: / Line 12: @@
 #"[[I'm Not From This World]]" – 6:41
 #"[[Over And Out]]" – 7:49
+===Vinyl===
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A1&nbsp; "Shit Mirror" – 3:06<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A2&nbsp; "Ahead Of Ourselves" – 3:30<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A3&nbsp; "Play The Goddamned Part" – 4:51<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;B1&nbsp; "God Break Down The Door" – 4:14<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;B2&nbsp; "I'm Not From This World" – 6:41<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;B3&nbsp; "Over And Out" – 7:49<br />
 ==Formats==
-Like the two previous releases, ''Bad Witch'' will be available as a 12" vinyl, a digital download and as a CD. Despite the fact that ''Not The Actual Events'' and ''Add Violence'' were marketed as EPs, ''Bad Witch'' is marketed as an album. In a post on [[ETS]], [[Trent Reznor]] explained the decision behind the format change by stating that "EPs show up with singles in Spotify and other streaming services = they get lost easier. EPs feel less important in today’s music-isn’t-as-important-as-it-once-was world. Why make it easier to ignore?"
+Like the two previous releases, ''Bad Witch'' is available as a 12" vinyl, a digital download and as a CD. Despite the fact that ''Not The Actual Events'' and ''Add Violence'' were marketed as EPs, ''Bad Witch'' is marketed as an album. In a post on [[ETS]], [[Trent Reznor]] explained the decision behind the format change by stating that "EPs show up with singles in Spotify and other streaming services = they get lost easier. EPs feel less important in today’s music-isn’t-as-important-as-it-once-was world. Why make it easier to ignore?"
 An exclusive run (limited to 2400), off-white vinyl pressing was also offered through Merchbar as part of the #SpotifyFansFirst campaign.
@@ Line 20: / Line 30: @@
 ==About==
-''Bad Witch'' was officially announced on May 10, 2018. The official [[nin.com]] website description states:
+''Bad Witch'' was officially announced on May 10, 2018. The official [[nin.com]] website description states: "CONCLUSION. SHADOWS ON THE CAVE WALL." This is likely a reference to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave Plato's allegory of the cave].
+On May 19, 2018, at "The Physical World" ticket presale, an exclusive listening station was made available for those in attendance. It gave fans the opportunity to hear the songs "Ahead Of Ourselves" and "Play The Goddamned Part" before the album's release.
+The album makes use of saxophone on several tracks, more than any previous NIN recording. This is explained in an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly''[http://ew.com/music/2018/06/20/trent-reznor-bad-witch-interview/], where the interviewer compares the use of sax to that on [[David Bowie]]'s ''Blackstar'':
+<blockquote>Clearly, Bowie is front of mind, and that was certainly an influence. In terms of the precision of arrangement, I think back to [being] younger, reading about Psychedelic Furs as a bunch of students that all picked instruments and learned enough to make a record. As someone that had studied his ass off how to play an instrument, I thought, "You can do that?" Some people worried about technique or if it’s in tune, or if it’s played well. [For ''Bad Witch'', I thought] let’s just use it and add to the mayhem and message we are trying to convey. All this time [the sax] had been just sitting in my studio staring at me. Taunting me.</blockquote>
+Unlike the two preceding EPs, the title of ''Bad Witch'' is not derived from a lyric sung or printed in the album’s digital or liner notes. A definitive explanation of the title is yet to be revealed.
-<blockquote>"CONCLUSION. SHADOWS ON THE CAVE WALL."</blockquote>
+==Live Representation==
+All songs from ''Bad Witch'' have been played live except "Play The Goddamned Part" and "I'm Not From This World".
-In an interview with Zane Lowe[http://itunes.apple.com/us/post/sa.24db9a20-59e3-11e8-8359-8a5db8dbb4ce?app=music&ign-itsct=be1_con_zan&ign-itscg=10703], Reznor somewhat explained the concept underlying each piece of the trilogy:
+==Artwork==
-<blockquote>"Let me drop some cryptic information on you. The idea of this three EP thing was all to find truth in us figuring out who we are now and how we fit into the world. The first EP, ''Not The Actual Events'', was meant to be from a personal angry self-destructive reflection on that question and defining how I feel in a world, that feels stranger, part of that’s aging. Part of that’s because the world is getting weirder. Finding your place in a world that looks different every day little bit changes and reacting to that in the first EP through anger and self-destruction and setting a match to your life.
+[[Image:Bad_Witch_Back_Cover.jpg|thumb|''Bad Witch'' back cover]]
+[[Image:Despair.jpeg|thumb|''Despair'' by Perham Nahl]]
+The "scratch marks" seen in the ''Not The Actual Events'' and ''Add Violence'' cover artworks appear in a different form on the right border of the back cover of this album.
-The second EP, ''Add Violence'', was meant to the same question. But looking for answers externally. Maybe it’s because of this and there’s comfort in that. Maybe there’s a reason things feel kind of crazy and it’s not that I’m insane, that I’m in a situation that’s insane.
+An alternate front cover was found, depicting different hues and contrasts on all five boxes, as well as a different hand and a different computer chip.  The alternate cover appeared on a promo CD from Caroline Records, which was the international distributor for the album.
-<br>
-And with the third EP which has grown into an LP (''Bad Witch''). It was coming to one final look at that question from rejecting what EP number two says, and it wasn’t an easy answer… The entire system has a much more bleak and pessimistic outlook and I want to say too much because it gives away kind of the what the thing is. But it wasn’t necessarily what we thought it was going to be when we started. I thought it was going to go more science fiction. I don’t really want to overwhelm you with cleverness and deep diving and part of that felt like an arms race and it also felt like a cop out."</blockquote>
-In another interview with Lizzy Goodman posted on nin.com, Reznor explains the trilogy’s concept in detail:
+The middle bottom row image is adapted from a painting entitled ''Despair'' by Perham Nahl.[https://archive.org/details/artincalifornias00port/page/n175/mode/2up] The computer chip, within the fifth box, appears to be an image of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_4004 Intel 4004 CPU].
-<blockquote>"But to be clear, the record isn’t about Trump, it’s about making sense of the world. The first record, Not the Actual Events, was more of an internal fantasy of what if I lit a match to my life and just embraced burning the whole fucking thing down. You know? All of this is an illusion and I really should be dead or lying in a ditch somewhere. Who I ''really'' am is an addict that self-destructs. That’s my true nature and this is an illusion and some borrowed time. It wasn’t a pleasant thing, but it felt like, that’s a story to tell. And if felt like something I needed to internally process.
+In an interview with ''Rolling Stone''[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nine-inch-nails-atticus-ross-talks-stage-fright-and-trent-reznors-musical-genius-702117/], Atticus Ross commented: "There's a primitive aspect or reflection of who we are in these times on there. It seems like we've been led. And I think we implied that in the cover, staring at shadows on the wall."
-And that supported other things that were interesting to us like aggressive music and a sense of the self-referential, looking back at other albums and pilfering bits of the art design to confuse people and also because I was thinking about those records. To try picking up a guitar, which I told myself I would never do again for whatever reason and finding, you know what? It sounds fucking good. Listening back and going, you know what? That was a good song from 25 years ago, it’s not bad to play something like that. There are no rules. That was the first record.
+In an interview with Covet The Cover on Instagram[https://www.instagram.com/covet_the_cover/p/C4OmwiFLpJo/?img_index=1], designer Hassan Rahim elaborated more on the design process:
+<blockquote>"Trent provided two key words: primitive spirituality," says Rahim. The NIN frontman Reznor went on to say that ''Bad Witch'' represented "not literally witchcraft but the unexplainable, magic, nature, belief… not in the scientific kind of way but the unknowable, what’s beyond the threshold of death."
- It wasn’t fully mapped out but it was meant to feel like if we broke up one big record – if it was Downward Spiral, which has acts, if we do an album like that, but release one act at a time, it will be more immediate and the level of adrenaline and momentum will be higher. And maybe it will be consumed in a way that feels more digestible to an outside world that doesn’t have long attention spans anymore.
+After researching hundreds of public domain photos around the themes, the final creative solution was to make the cover "a sequential puzzle of images. More cryptic than explanatory. Alluding to unidentified aerial phenomena, fear, superstition, collapse of civilisation, and ultimately rebirth."
-With the second one, Add Violence, the idea was, loosely, to zoom out, to be more global and to imply that maybe we’re all in a simulated reality. And that might introduce the concept of meaninglessness but also provide a safe container to explain why everything feels off.
+This imagery was put through a repetitive degenerative "feedback loop" of photographing, copying and scanning, to achieve its distinctive aesthetic.</blockquote>
-By the time we got to the third one, we had an idea in mind but it felt … rehearsed. Predictable. In the end, what felt true was to say that we as a society and as a species are probably an accident, a mutation. Really what we are is fucking animals. And the illusion was enlightenment. The more we’ve connected with each other the dumber we’ve gotten and the more we decide we want to kill each other. We’re not some elevated transcendent beings, we’re bacteria in a jar. I wanted the art direction of Bad Witch to feel like shadows on a cave wall and we’re trying to figure out what it is and really there’s no nice, clean, safe scientific explanation. We’re just an accident. String theory and quantum physics is a fucking trick. And we’re not going to suddenly elevate ourselves into transcendent beings. We’re kidding ourselves. I know this will be an unsatisfying conclusion for some people. It isn’t what they want. They want it to be full matrix virtual reality, and this is the opposite of that, this is dirt and a broken computer chip and everything you believe in is really just bullshit."</blockquote>
+==Credits==
+*Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross<br>
+*Written, arranged, produced, programmed and performed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross<br>
-On May 19, 2018, at "The Physical World" ticket presale, an exclusive listening station was made available for those in attendance. It gave fans the opportunity to hear the songs "Ahead Of Ourselves" and "Play The Goddamned Part" before the album's release.
+*Additional vocals "Shit Mirror": [[Mariqueen Maandig Reznor]] and Ian Astbury<br>
-==LP Title==
+*Mix: [[Alan Moulder]]
-Unlike the two preceding EPs, the title of "Bad Witch" is not derived from a lyric sung or printed in the album’s digital or liner notes. A definitive explanation of the title is yet to be revealed.
+*Engineering: Chris Richardson and Justin McGrath
+*Mastering: Tom Baker at Baker Mastering<br>
-==Artwork==
+*Art Direction: 12:01- Office of Hassan Rahim
-[[Image:Bad_Witch_Back_Cover.jpg|thumb|''Bad Witch'' back cover]]
+*Legal: Zia Modabber for Katten Munchin Rosenman LLP, Ross Rosen for Ross B. Rosen & Associates, LLC
-The "scratch marks" seen in the ''Not The Actual Events'' and ''Add Violence'' cover artworks appear in a different form on the right border of the back cover of this album.
+*Management: Silva Artist Management
+*Booking: Marc Geiger for WME
+*Business Management: William Harper and Michael Walsh for Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman<br>
-An alternate front cover was found, depicting different hues and contrasts on all five boxes, as well as a different hand and a different computer chip.
+Thank you: Mariqueen Maandig Reznor, Claudia Sarne, Steve Barnett, Michelle Jubelirer, Ashley Newton, Ambrosia Healy, Arjun Pulijal, Erin Cooney, Ed Scott, Jim Chancellor, Andrew Lazonby, Cesar Rosas<br>
-The computer chip, within the fifth box, appears to be an image of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_4004 Intel 4004 CPU].
+© 2018 Form and Texture (ASCAP) / Administered by Kobalt Songs Music Publishing, Songs In the Key of Mink (BMI) / Administered by Downtown DMP Songs
 ==External Links==
@@ Line 65: / Line 90: @@
 {{Halo
 |number=32|before=[[Add Violence]]
-|after=TBD}}
+|after=[[Ghosts V: Together]]}}
 [[Category:NIN Discography]]